A collection of recipes and memories.

Menu

Traveling Dinner Party – Part 5 – Between Courses – Sorbets

How’s the planning of your Moveable Feast coming? Is your head just swimming with wonderful thoughts and ideas? If you are anything like me, the biggest struggle has been to narrow down the choices.

For a ten-Course Meal, we are at the 5th Course; for an eight-course party, we’ve reached the 3rd course. For those of you planning a six-course traveling extravaganza, typically this course is skipped entirely. Of course, you could always throw it in there – it’s your party, your “rules”.

This simple course added a touch of elegance to the evening as well as offering the all-important palate cleanser. It’s a welcome break from all the heavy eating, a chance to relax, undo that top button and take a deep breath. This is the perfect course for the non-cook among you who really wants to participate simply because the dish is easily found in the frozen section right next to the ice cream. For the more creative among you, if you have an ice cream maker and access to fresh fruit, this is right up your alley. Yep – it’s the Sorbet Course.

This course can be elegant, depending upon how you decide to serve it up. There are some very pretty dishes out there designed just for sorbet. Sorbet can be served in martini glasses, coupe champagne flutes or cordial glasses as well. Just remember, you need to be able to serve a scoop of sorbet AND have room for the spoon to maneuver. If you’ve got them, demi-spoons work best. (A well-stocked special event rental company should have a selection of dishes/glasses and spoons that would be perfect. Yeah, a little plug for the company – click on the picture below to see all the wonderful things waiting for your next event).

Sorbet Dish

The simplest approach to the sorbet course would be to pick a nice pre-made sorbet, and have your glass/dish well chilled. Simply dish and serve. For a different “twist” serve in a cocktail glass with just a splash of sparkling wine.

For the more ambitious among you, take a gander at just a few of the wonderful recipes floating about . . . .

Combine 2 1/2 cups water and sugar in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Add rind strips to pan. Reduce heat; simmer for 5 minutes. Strain sugar mixture through a sieve over a bowl, reserving liquid; discard solids. Cool completely.

Add orange juice and lemon juice to sugar mixture; stir well. Pour mixture into the freezer can of a tabletop ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. Spoon sorbet into a freezer-safe container; cover and freeze for 1 hour or until firm.

When ready to serve, garnish with grated rind and mint sprigs, if desired.

Place a container in freezer to hold finished sorbet. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the water and sugar to create a simply syrup. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, until sugar has dissolved. When the liquid boils, remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Cut the flesh of each mango away from its pit. Score the flesh in chunks, then cut the chunks from the skin. Place mango flesh in a food processor and process until smooth. Measure out 1 ½ cups of mango puree and place it into the cooled simple syrup. Add lemon juice, lime zest and salt. Stir until well blended.

Freeze the mango mixture in a ice-cream maker according to manufacture’s instructions. Spoon into chilled container, cover and freeze until ready to serve, up to 2 days.

Spoon into individual glasses. Garnish with long strips of Lime zest and serve.